You're reading: Media: Court bans celebration of 7th anniversary of Orange Revolution in Kyiv

Kyiv District Administrative Court has satisfied an appeal by Kyiv City State Administration and banned the celebration of the Day of Freedom on Independence Square, Channel 5 reported citing its sources in the coalition of participants of the Orange Revolution, which filed an application for holding the festivities.

"Leaders of non-governmental organizations believe that the administration’s decision could not have been made without the position of Oleksandr Popov (Head of Kyiv City State Administration). Those who want to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the Orange Revolution promised to challenge this decision," the channel’s press service said.

The Freedom Day was established by a decree of the third president of Ukraine (2005-2010), Viktor Yuschenko, in 2005 to commemorate the 2004 Orange Revolution.

The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation and direct electoral fraud.

The protests were prompted by reports from several domestic and foreign election monitors that the results of the run-off vote of November 21, 2004 between leading candidates Viktor Yuschenko and Viktor Yanukovych were rigged by the authorities in favor of the latter. The nationwide protests succeeded when the results of the original run-off were annulled, and a revote was ordered by Ukraine’s Supreme Court for December 26, 2004. The final results of the second run-off showed a clear victory for Yuschenko, who was declared the official winner and with his inauguration on January 23, 2005 in Kyiv, the Orange Revolution ended.

In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych was declared winner of the following presidential election said to have been conducted fairly by the Central Election Commission (CEC) and international observers.